Authorities in Hunan, China’s central province, are alleged to be keeping a teacher in a mental facility after she spoke out against the expulsion of a Shanghai journalism instructor who encouraged her pupils to check official versions of the Nanjing massacre.
After officials from her hometown of Shaba in Hunan’s Yongshun county attempted to have her committed for mental care, schoolteacher Li Tiantian, who is now pregnant, posted a call for aid on the social media platform Weibo Moments on Sunday.
Officials wanted her transferred to a mental facility for injections, she alleged “mental problems.” “If I die, that will be two lives gone,” she said, in a reference to her unborn child.
Li Ang, a Hunan-based current affairs pundit, informed RFA that Li is now in a mental facility.
“She was let go because she was telling the truth on the internet,” Li Ang said. “She spoke out in support of Song Gengyi, the lecturer in Shanghai, and the authorities came round and threatened her.”
“I heard she was sent to the psychiatric hospital for ‘treatment’ today, but I was unable to verify that,” he said. “She was threatened by officials from the local education bureau and police.”
According to sources, she is apparently being kept at the Yongshun County Psychiatric Hospital.
After Shanghai Aurora College sacked instructor Song Gengyi for doubting the Chinese government’s official death toll of 300,000 for the 1937 massacre, Li made his views on Weibo on Friday.
One of Song’s pupils, Dong Xun, filmed her lecture and released it online.
In the clip, Song calls the 300,000 deaths tally used by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a “rough estimate that lacks statistical support” adding that there is a very wide range of estimates of casualties.
On Friday, Li joined in, stating that the problem wasn’t with Song’s speech, but with the student who told on her, the school that dismissed her, and the Chinese intellectuals who have remained silent on the topic.
Calls to Li Tiantian’s cellphone were unanswered repeatedly.
Dong Xun was doxxed by some online remarks, forcing him to retaliate with a short film on the Douyin sharing site.
“This wasn’t a trivial matter, but rather a matter of national historical importance,” Dong said. “She’s the one who made it a big deal, so we’ll see how she deals with it now.”
Some people criticized Dong for his lack of morals, while others sneered at him: “So the teacher who tells the truth will be replaced with one who will brainwash you.”
A photo circulating on social media showed a banner calling on Dong Xun to “get out of Shanghai Aurora.”
Wu Lijuan, a Hubei-based rights activist, expressed her displeasure with Dong for informing on Song, claiming that the video of the lecture had been tampered with.
“This was reported out context, because the lecturer said estimates ranged from 500,000 to 300,000 to 30,000 to 3,000,” Wu told RFA. “They deleted the part where she says 500,000 from the video clip.”
On the same day that Song was fired, Gao Weijia, a Tsingtao staff lecturer, had her teaching license revoked and was transferred to a non-teaching position after she said in a Weibo post that young people should “feel free” to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which includes memorials to convicted Japanese war criminals.